At least one woman has died after a vehicle rammed into two bus stops in the French port city of Marseille, French media reported.

According to BBC, the driver has been arrested in the scenic Old Port area of France's second-largest city.

The regional La Provence newspaper and BFM-TV say that at least one woman has died.

The incident took place at around 9am local time, one source said, asking not to be named.

The Renault car first drove at speed towards a bus stop in the city's 13th district, leaving one person seriously hurt, before targeting another stop in the 11th district, causing one fatality.

Another source said the vehicle was a van.

Julien Ravier, mayor of the 11th and 12th districts, told BFMTV news channel that the victim was a woman in her 40s who was waiting alone at the stop.

The police source said the man was in his mid-30s and was not from Marseille.

The sources did not say whether the incident was being treated as a terror attack.

BFMTV reported that a bystander noted the registration number of the car, which the police used to trace the vehicle to the city's Old Port district, where the suspect was arrested.

Police sealed off the port area and urged residents in a tweet to avoid the neighbourhood which is popular with tourists.

The incident comes just days after back-to-back van attacks in Barcelona and Spanish resort town of Cambrils killed 14 people.

Last year in July, at least 84 people, including 10 children, were killed when a truck drove into a crowd watching a fireworks display in Nice, to mark the holiday of Bastille Day.